UH Manoa Chancellor's awards for outstanding service

Two Big Island employees of the UH Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) have been selected to receive the Chancellor‘s Outstanding Service Award for 2003.

This year‘s honorees are Gaillane Maehira, an agriculture technician and farm foreman at the Volcano Research Center, and Patricia Macomber, who works as an academic support specialist at CTAHR‘s Natural Resources and Environmental Management Department.

"These two employees are universally praised by their colleagues," said Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert. "They are wonderful representatives of the fine UH work force that serves the people of Hawaiʻi all over the state, and I am pleased to be able to recognize their good work."

Gaillane Maehira‘s "office" is a thirty acre experimental farm adjacent to the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park that includes 26,000 square feet of greenhouse space. He maintains the grounds at the research station, and is highly skilled at the plumbing, electrical, welding, mechanical and agricultural skills necessary to keep the farm running at peak efficiency. He‘s constructed nine demonstration solarization units and supervised construction of greenhouses at both his own research station and at the Komohana agriculture complex in Hilo.

Patricia Macomber is an environmental and public health educator for CTAHR on the Big Island. She has done extensive study and research on the construction and use of water catchment systems that still serve as a primary water source for 60,000 residents in remote areas of Hawaiʻi County. She has published an authoritative book on rainwater catchment systems and developed bacteria test kits that are widely distributed on the Big Island through state and federal public health agencies.

CTAHR Dean Andrew Hashimoto commented, "These two individuals exemplify the dedicated and conscientious employees that we have in CTAHR. Their actions are indicative of our goals to revitalize the economy, protect Hawaiʻi‘s unique ecosystems, and strengthen Hawaiʻi‘s communities.

"We are proud of their accomplishments and encourage them and others always to strive to serve the people of the state as representative employees of UH Manoa," Hashimoto added.

Maehira and Macomber will each receive certificates of recognition and a $1,000 monetary award at a UH convocation and awards ceremony in September, 2003, and are automatically nominated for the 2003 Governor‘s Award for Distinguished State Service to be announced in October.